Tuesday, January 11, 2011

A Thank You

I've had a couple surprises this last couple weeks when it comes to my friends and their finances. I keep in contact with some friends from University through daily e-mails we send back and forth as a group. Somehow we got onto the topic of retirement savings. I was feeling a little sheepish, because I had cut my retirement savings from 18% to 0% when I switched jobs after I bought my house, and only recently had I started to put a little bit back in. This sheepishness is compounded by the fact that I used my retirement nest egg as a downpayment for my house through the new homebuyers program. These friends are professionals, make smart financial decisions, and some of them had actually stayed at home with their parents until they had enough money to buy a house. Surely they must be putting in their maximum contributions?

Nope.

Some of them hadn't even put in a dime yet. Some were only putting in 2%. Of those of us that were sharing, I think my 3% contributions were actually the highest. I was stunned. I'm glad that our discussion moved in the direction of "I really should get on this, even if it's just a little", because I know how much easier it is to save when you're young.

I showed my blog to a friend of mine at work, again with a surprising response. Apparently we have the same consumer debtload. It's creepy close, one total was within $100. It's making me realize that I'm not the only one out there who has made mistakes, I'm not the only one feeling the pinch, and I'm not the only one worried about the future. It's relieving in a way, because struggling with debt can be such an isolating experience.

So, I'd like to thank all of the other personal finance bloggers out there for sharing your stories and encouragement. It means a lot to me, and it helps me stay committed to getting rid of my debt. Thank You!



Seven RRSP growth strategies. (Registered Retirement Savings Plan): An article from: Canadian Chemical News
Retirement realities. (Registered Retirement Savings Plans): An article from: Canadian Manager
Are RRSPs worth it? (registered retirement savings plans): An article from: Canadian Chemical News
Posted by at
Labels: , , , ,

3 comments:

FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com said...

See? :) Can't assume anything.

You do what you can, the best you can!

January 11, 2011 at 8:40 AM
youngandthrifty said...

Hey i did pretty much the same thing too- take out the majority of my RRSP for the down payment of the house. That's what it's there for, there are only two chances you can take out money from your RRSp- for the home buyers plan and the lifelong buyers plan, so we should take advantage of it :)

I take it you're from Vancouver too? :)

You're definitely ahead of the game compared to me with the mortgage debt you have! (I have about $60,000 more)

January 11, 2011 at 5:19 PM
Cassie said...

I'm actually in Edmonton, but I'm originally from Squamish (I miss it there)

If you managed to find a place for $300,000 in Vancouver I'd say you're doing pretty good too! I got mine in foreclosure, so I got a decent price on it.

January 11, 2011 at 5:24 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)